Stories by flamks

Rescheduled to March 14th, I attended and the sound system was the best I experienced in concert as the speakers hung from the ceiling providing better sound. Two people I work with now also attended, although I didn't know them at the time.

My last concert for 28 years. Have tickets to Tom Petty/ZZ Top on Sept 16, 2010 and REO Speedwagon/Eddie Money on Oct 8, 2010 breaking a long drought. Lots of great classic acts coming around that I have been missing. I am looking forward to seeing many more.

While Black Sabbath was the headlining act and great, I distinctly remember leaving Bayfront thinking how Van Halen clearly out rocked them and the crowd seemed to agree. This was their first tour according to Wikipedia. At the time I was only familiar with 2 Van Halen songs on their only album at the time, "You Really Got Me" and "Runnin' With The Devil". I often wish I had somehow knew to pay more attention to them but one never knows of upcoming superstars.

This was my first concert at age 15. I remember a storm approached as they played the third song. The band announced they would wait for the storm to pass. After a half hour or so someone announced the concert would be postponed until the next night and people started chanting "rain or shine" which was printed on the tickets.

There were many police milling around behind the plywood barrier that separated the crowd from the stage. The crowd was pressing against the barrier and bulging it somewhat. I was to the left of the stage up in the stands at about the 20 yard line maybe 30 rows up. I saw a whiskey (or simular) bottle lobbed from about midfield that cleared the plywood barrier and hit a policeman in the side of the head.

Then all the police grouped in a crowd near where this happened and were obviously conversing. I knew this wasn't going to be good. Then they moved up towards us in the stands and we ran up a few rows, but they were only coming up to go back down onto the field. Once we saw this we decided to sit back down and watch as they were moving away from us. I then watched them seriously rough up some people with billyclubs. We soon decided to head out while things were still good in our area.

I sent my ticket in for the refund but about 2 years later I bought one from a friend who didn't send it in, so I have an original ticket which is probably somewhat rare at this point. I gave him the $10 he would have gotten had he sent it in.

I bought the ticket but had just turned 16 and wasn't allowed to drive the 60 or so miles to the concert so it went unused. I continued to wear down my parents and on Nov 5, 1977 drove to the Doobie Brothers which opened the way for the rest of the concerts.

Most of this concert was viewed from a field with a small set of stands available. We started out in the stands but when I heard a noise and looked behind me and saw the guy right behind me with a baggie full of hypodermic needles and he had just used one and dropped it when done, we moved to the grass field. I partied pretty strong at concerts, but I didn't need loose needles at my feet or someone flipping out behind me. Never got into the needle scene.